DISCOURSE I

THE DIVINE NATURE.

Partakers of the Divine Nature."-2 PETER c. 1. v. 4.

MOST of the epistles of the New Testament begin with a brief description of the character of the persons to whom they are addressed. Sketches are given of the most prominent features of their religious character and experience, reminding them of the great work that had been wrought in them by their reception of the christian doctrines and of their interest in the further communications about to be made to them, relating to their moral conduct, their spiritual attainments, and their future prospects. Thus, in one epistle, such persons

are addressed as those to whom the gospel had come, "not in word only, but also in power, and with the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." In another, as those who had been "quickened, though formerly dead in trespasses and sins." They are described in others as "saints and faithful brethren in Christ Jesus;" and here the Apostle Peter associates the christians to whom he writes, with himself, in "the faith and righteousness of Jesus Christ"; and exhorts them to follow after greater proficiency in the divine life, assuring them of all necessary means and resources being furnished for this purpose, since they had already been made "partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

Let all who read the epistles attend to these characteristics in order to ascertain whether they have anything answering to the descriptions contained in them; and if they find it to be so, let them look upon the epistle as belonging to themselves: as much so, as if it had been addressed to them by name, with a description of their place of abode. But should they not find all these characteristics in themselves, still let them read, that they may be moved to seek after the requisite qualifications, that by the grace of God bestowed on them they may not rest satisfied till they also become "partakers of the divine nature." It is of this divine nature, of which all rege

nerate persons are and must be the recipients, that I propose now to treat. I shall at present discourse of it only generally; as the basis of an ample series of discourses on its particular manifestations in what is usually termed the experience of christians. I shall, however, take for my sole guide the holy scriptures, availing myself of the records of christian experience in following ages, as illustrations and confirmations only, of the principles laid down in holy writ. May God, in his goodness and mercy, guard me against every departure from his truth, as well as against human speculations, which, apart from his word, have neither force nor authority! "The prophet that hath a dream let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat; saith the Lord."

I. Let us inquire, then, with all seriousness and simplicity of mind, what is meant in scripture by that divine nature, of which all christians are said to be partakers. Obviously, it does not mean that any new powers or faculties are communicated to them, but only the infusion of new qualities into those which they already possess, -new directions or a bias in reference to spiritual operations and objects. Though in some parts of the New Testament, and even of the Old, the production of such effects is called a creation, as where the Psalmist prays, 66 create in me a

clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me;" and also where the Apostle speaks of being "created anew in Christ Jesus," the term is employed, not in the primary but in the secondary sense; not as signifying the production of something out of nothing, but as putting into a new state of operation and arrangement what was already in existence. For so Moses himself uses the word creation in reference to the formation of this orderly and beautiful world out of the original chaos.

The production of this new and divine nature, therefore, is expressed with a greater exactitude of phrase in other parts of scripture, where it is called a restoration or renewal ;--" who hath saved us by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost:" "renewed in the image of God in righteousness and true holiness.” Here the allusion is plainly to the state of rectitude and holiness in which man was created, from which he fell by transgression, bringing disorder into his whole nature and constitution. Out of this disorder, in which we are born, as his offspring, no power can raise us but that which made us at first. Now this is done by the formation of the divine nature again within us. by the redemption of Christ we are restored to the favour of God, of which Adam, by his fall, had deprived us; while by the spirit of grace which he has procured, we are renewed again in

Thus,